21 signs you’re an INFJ personality type {INFJ Refuge images}

As the rarest of the 16 Myers-Briggs personality types, INFJs often feel different from other people and misunderstood. Their rich personalities have many layers, and sometimes even they themselves struggle to figure out who they are. Yet as INFJs understand themselves better, they become more equipped to do what they do best, which is to share their well-refined insights and help others move toward their true potential. (Not sure what your personality type is? Take this free, quick test from our partners at Personality Hacker.)

Enter INFJ Refuge, the largest public Facebook community for INFJs. The Facebook page content is created by an international team of seven administrators, including founder Rohit Barman, who until now has remained anonymous.

Rohit, who is 33 years old and originally from New York, now lives in Calcutta, India, so he can care for his INFJ mom who has Alzheimer’s disease. Rohit, along with the other page “hosts,” have day jobs, but they volunteer each week to post images and words of wisdom, as well as respond to followers’ comments and questions.

The purpose of the page, Rohit tells I, D, is to bring together INFJs from all across the globe, “so we, as INFJs, with all our cognitive complexities, are understood, respected and appreciated by our families, friends, lovers, colleagues, communities and last, but not least, ourselves.”

How do you know if you’re an INFJ personality type? Here are 21 signs, explained using INFJ Refuge images:

1. You’ve been told you’re an ‘old soul.’

2. You have the incredible ability of knowing what makes others tick, but you rarely feel understood yourself.

3. Learning about being an INFJ was like finally reading your owner’s manual.

4. You have high standards for yourself and those close to you.

5. You never stop growing and trying to improve yourself, and you like helping others do the same.

6. You’re tuned in to the people around you.

7. You have the uncanny ability to perceive people’s motives and feelings, even when they don’t directly express them.

8. You can usually tell when someone is lying or being fake.

9. You feel things deeply, but you don’t always show it. To your own harm, you internalize your emotions.

10. You’re so sensitive to other people’s feelings that you sometimes experience them as your own.

11. You’re a paradoxical blend of ‘dreamer’ and ‘doer.’ But sometimes you put things off because you don’t feel prepared.

12. You intuitively notice patterns in other people’s behavior. You hear the things that aren’t said, and you wisely trust actions over words.

13. You’re incredibly patient, but when people go against your deeply-held principles, you may suddenly cut them out of your life.

14. As a sensitive introvert, sometimes life seems like too much.

15. Sometimes you just need to retreat into solitude for a while.

16. You’re always trying to balance your need for independence and alone time with your equally strong need to connect deeply with others.

17. Sometimes you feel so different from other people that you swear you came from another planet.

18. You’re intense or nothing at all.

19. You care deeply about the state of humanity and causes that are important to you.

20. Superficial pleasantries and small talk don’t do it for you. You connect with others soul-to-soul.

21. You live for the personal, the intimate and the authentic.

A huge thank you to the team at INFJ Refuge for helping make this post possible, by sharing their images and giving their time and hearts to the INFJ community: Shan Narain Jain (New Delhi, India); Nafila S. (Bangladesh); Susan Sontra (Elk Grove, California); Eric Nijholt (Culemborg, Netherlands); Eleni Lamprianidou (Bristol, United Kingdom); James Brandon (Toledo, Ohio); and Rohit Barman.

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Jenn Granneman is the founder of Introvert, Dear, the popular community for introverts and highly sensitive people. Jenn is an introvert, a highly sensitive person, and an INFJ personality type. She started Introvert, Dear to help other introverts not feel so alone or weird. Look for her first book, The Secret Lives of Introverts: Inside Our Hidden World, in spring 2017. To get personal updates and see the occasional cat picture, follow her on Facebook.

I was thinking the same. There are a few that are very INFJ like, but otherwise they are very vague and not that specific. But the introvert specifics examples I think most introverts can relate to, so an INFJ will still feel it’s right on spot as well as the other introvert types. 🙂

Recently I’ve discovered I’m an INFJ and that just changed my life hahahah It’s great to know that I’m not the only weirdo in the world that see what nobody seem to notice, and read about it (and I do that a lot) I keep feeling better and more secure of myself. I always knew I was different (every person I know have told me), but now, I like to be different, I like to be me, I even like the craziness in my mind and the look of surprise in other people eyes when I say exactly what they were thinking.

I love these! I particularly identify with #3. I’ve thought for years that I might be mildly autistic, but I think it’s just my INFJ personality. I was an emotional H-bomb of joy when I read a detailed INFJ profile a few years ago.

The biggest thing for me is when I reach a certain point in intimate relationships (with a girlfriend, sibling, or close friend) where I just shut down and withdraw. I could never explain it. I thought something was wrong with me. But then I read in a MBTI profile that this is normal for INFJs, and suddenly it all made sense. It was like a cascade of relief.

I’m an ISFP, most of these are pretty vague so even I could relate. ISFPs are often said to be the most intuitive sensors and can sometimes even be mistaken for INFJs (especially online), because of their Fi and Ni which makes them quite deep, emotional people.

I really appreciate this website, it’s like coming home! It was only a month ago I took my first test and discovered all the reasons I’m so strange, well at least the main one anyways. #3 was me before taking the one on Personality Hacker. I had actually googled ” why am I so strange?” and then stumbled upon the test without any previous knowledge of what the MBTI was.

Thank you, so very much for your time with this. I too “self diagnosed;)” later than I wished I had. So many feelings of being ” left out” but not caring in the least to “fit in”. I was floored after I discovered my “type”. So…all this time…..this is why. I’m not a mutant, I’m a damn unicorn. Although maybe a unicorn is a mutant…anyhoo.

I’m not a profesional but as far as I Know, INTJ are one of the types who use the most logic. They are thinkers. For them the world is often like a game of chess. The INTJ adores logic and strategy. But they also have a “weakness” : emotions. INTJs sometimes Even confuse themselves with psychopaths. They tend to lock away their feelings nearly completely. The INFJ is a feeler. People often confuse the INFJ with my type, the INFP. INFJ have the ability to lock behind the mask of a person. For them emotions are much more importent than to the INTJ. They value harmony and aren’t good with critism, while INTJs value the truth, they Love to discuss and Point out weaknesses. While the INFJ often is too hard on his or herself, INTJs are always told that they act arrogant, cold and emotionless. (I’m sorry for any grammar or Spelling mistakes, Englisch isn’t my First language…)

they say INFJ is one of the rarest type and bla bla bla…how come it’s the rarest when they are so many claimed to be one? smh although most of the signs above are on point, but it make me feel cringey. why? idek